Making peremech is a great family tradition from Peter’s Tatar side of the family. Every time we head to California to visit family we are thrilled to be surprised with these delicious meat filled pastries.

They are truly a labor of love to prepare from scratch and aren’t quick to prepare but part of the tradition is having family members pitch in to help. Many hands make for light work and I know Peter wished his cousins were in Hong Kong with us to prepare and cook. I can’t wait until one day Baby P is a here, older, and ready to get put to work 😉

I was a little bit nervous making peremech at home. Making a dish that evokes so much sentiment and memory for your husband for the first time can be pretty intimidating and I know Pete’s expectations were high. I may never make them as well as Grandmama but it was definitely worth trying so that we could enjoy peremech all the way from Hong Kong.

Peter showing off his pleating technique

Ready for frying

Luckily, Peter’s cousin shared an old Tatar Recipe Book with us. I’m sure any peremech recipe is one of those recipes that every family has their own way of making it, but this quick, simple, recipe turned out perfectly for us and I can’t wait to try making pelmenis next.

The prep work for peremech takes some time and the pleating may take some patience, but again, it’s all worth it!

When your bump gets in the way of photos

The fried dough is filled with ground beef and onion and topped with your choice of onion soup, sour cream or plain yogurt, soy sauce, or yellow mustard. Peter likes his with onion soup, sour cream and yellow mustard.

My combo? Onion soup, plain yogurt and soy sauce.

Peremech are delectable little pastries and I love them not just because of the family tradition behind them. We had our peremech for a late lunch then Peter fried up an egg to serve with his peremech for breakfast. This recipe makes 28 peremech but if you have more help, you’ll want to make more because they are gobbled up quickly.

This 3 hours of prep time and 30 min of cooking is for one person to make the full 28 peremech alone--if you can recruit more hands to help it will go by more quickly or you can make more! Based on "Traditional Tatar Recipes" by Rukiye Safa